Black South-easter Sunday Flower Walk

Yes, cold and blustery and overcast! But it didn't stop us from seeing what was in flower in 'our patch'!

But first, from during the week: I mentioned before that the Wachendorfia thyrsiflora were about to flower on a farm I work on. Here they are, characteristically with their feet in the water:

Wachendorfia thyrsiflora

Flower detail:

Wachendorfia thyrsiflora flowers

Also on this farm, some of the brightest Vygies Mesembryanthemums I've ever seen!

Vygies Mesembryanthemum

On the way, on the side of the road, a Satyr Orchid Satyrium coriifolium:

Satyr Orchid Satyrium coriifolia

Today, still on the farm, in a tenant's garden, we found this Ixia:

Ixia

Out on the path near the ruins of the railway cottages, a new one to us: (it wouldn't stand still in the wind, but the photo is included to show how the whole plant grows!) Probably a Beetle Lily, Baeometra uniflora:

Beetle Lily Baeometra uniflora ? 

Flower detail:

Baeometra uniflora flower detail

Nearby, a Sparaxis bulbifera:

Sparaxis bulbifera

I still haven't seen a Sundew Drosera flower open!

Sundew Drosera buds

Sundew Drosera buds

On the lower slopes there are literally hundreds of young Wachendorfia paniculata out, yet strangely the more established plants further up have yet to push buds up!

Wachendorfia paniculata

Pink flowers makes this plant a Teedia:

Teedia

In the small area we've found these Drimias (?) there are certainly many of them. But nowhere else! In places the leaves have been eaten (?) off. I plucked and chewed on a leaf, but it tasted like any other plain grass.

Drimia? 

These, first spotted last week, have developed, but we still haven't found a name for them. Some kind of daisy?

Unknown flower

Another one, showing a whole plant:

Whole plant with above flowers

Near it, a pink Metalasia!

Metalasia quinqueflora (?)

Metalasia cephalotes?

Metalasia quinqueflora (?) flower

At last! An open Helichrysum

Helichrysum

'Our' single Erica longifolia (?) is looking a but shabby at the moment:

Erica longifolia (?)

Quite the opposite in the case of the Phaenocoma prolifera! Bud, young flower, and full blown! They can be seen all the way up and down Houw Hoek Pass, here and there.

Phaenocoma prolifera

This gives an idea of the weather (and the terrain!). Yellow daisies are out all over!

Black South-easter and off-white Labrador

We were keen to find the single plant with the cluster of pink flowers we found last week. We still haven't pinned it down, although it might be a Helichrysum. One flower looks fully open.

Unknown flower, a Helichrysum? 

This shows how it grows, and the leaves:

This is what the plant looks like

Back at home, the Sundowners are moving fast, the bee-hives are expected early tomorrow morning!

Sundowner blossom! 

:-) A

Three Wachendorfias Sunday Flower Walk

The books tell us there are four Wachendorfias found in our area, named after a Botanist from Utrecht. To find three of them on successive days this last week is somewhat surprising! They are noticeable by their pleated leaves and yellow flowers, but they differ in detail.

On our walks in the patch of ex-forest we are monitoring for the return of the fynbos after 100 years of monoculture, we find many of what we think is Wachendorfia paniculata. The leaves are dagger shaped and curved, hairy and quite stiff.

Wachendorfia paniculata ?

The flowers have compact stamens and the yellow patch in the middle has a dark border.

Flower detail 

On a farm I visited in the week I found a different one, the leaves shaped like wide spear-heads, although still pleated, smooth and floppy.

Wachendorfia multiflora or W. brachyandra ?

On the flowers, the darker patch is less distinct, and the stamens spread widely.

Flower detail

This might be Wachendorfia multiflora or possibly W. brachyandra. Imagine my surprise driving along a stream on a farm the next day and noticing pleated leaves, but much longer!

Wachendorfia thyrsiflora

Yes, those buds will produce yellow flowers, they told me, so that makes them Wachendorfia thyrsiflora! Three in three days, a hat-trick!

Today near the ruined railway cottages, I spotted these violet flowers from a bulb. We looked for them later, they must have closed for the night! Not yet sure what they are.

Unknown bulb

We're still waiting for the flowers to open on the Sundews Drosera. I did find one white bud later, but the flower wasn't open yet.

Sundew Drosera with buds

There was a single flower on the 'new' tall erica we found a week or two ago, still not sure what it is.

Flower detail of recently-found Erica

The Lobelia tomentosa are particularly deep in colour at the moment. They have not stopped flowering since we first found them years back. Sometimes they're less impressive, but now they're vividly violet!

Lobelia tomentosa

We checked on one of the 'new' plants we've found recently. Only one flower is open on a stem.

Unknown plant, Drimia? flower and buds

This picture shows an assortment, two flower stalks of this unknown plant, a Wachendorfia on the left and perhaps some Combflower Micranthus buds (?).

Unknown plant with Wachendorfia and Micranthus (?)

Close by we found a poor example of the pink pea-type flower we found two examples of recently, some distance away.

Another example of the pea-type flower found elsewhere

All the time we were noticing the strange cloud formations! The lines seemed to radiate from the Kogelberg.

Strange cloud formation!

Now is the time for the pink buds of the Everlastings Helichrysums. We previously thought they were different, but once open, they become white.

Helichrysum with pink buds which turn white

The daisies we think are Euryops are at their best at the moment. Up till now, only one flower has been open per plant.

Daisies are out, but which are they?

Here and there are examples of this delicate, deep pink Erica. There are small clusters of flowers like this, a short way back from the tips. Not sure of the name.

Erica flower

Pippa had to lift a cut pine tree off our single Muraltia heisteria specimen. We've never found another on our searches!

Muraltia heisteria flower detail

We get the impression the plant is getting bigger.

Muraltia heisteria plant

In that area there are many Aristea africana. We found only one with a flower. They close around midday.

Aristea africana bud and spent flower

We found another China Flower Adenandra bush!

China Flower Adenandra

Flower detail

These Everlastings are white from the beginning!

Helichrysum

On a farm in the Greyton area this morning, two other pea-types: 

Another pea family flower

And another!

There was also a plantation of yellowwoods! Yesterday in the full sunlight, there were carpets of these deep pink mesembs, growing close to the ground:

Mesembryanthemums

It was pleasing to see a skein of more than twenty Blue Cranes fly over!

Blue Cranes Anthropoides paradiseus, South Sfrica's National Bird

:-) A